India tells Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir will remain its integral part

Pakistan’s permanent representative Maleeha Lodhi had raised the Kashmir issue during a debate in the United Nations on Thursday. Photo: AFP

United Nations: India has told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir will remain its integral part and criticised Islamabad for using terrorism as “tool of state policy” to covet the Indian territory.

Senior Indian diplomat Srinivas Prasad said it was “well known” that Islamabad provides safe havens to terrorists.

In a reply to Pakistan’s permanent representative Maleeha Lodhi, who raised the Kashmir issue during a debate on Thursday, Prasad said Islamabad has used “terrorism as a tool of state policy” and was using the UN platform to “covet Indian territory”.

“May I remind our neighbour that Jammu and Kashmir is and will remain an integral part of India. It is time that Pakistan too reconciles to this. As a democracy India always abides by the choice of the people and will not allow it to be undermined by terrorists and extremists. It reiterates the principle of the need for promotion of peace through non-violence, a principle Gandhiji so eloquently expressed in his life message,” Prasad said.